common meals.841 The assignment of lots to the citizens is on the same terms as in the Laws, with the exception that the owners are masters of the product of their lots.842 Despite his criticism of Plato’s division of homesteads, he has the same plan.843 As in the Laws, only citizens are landowners, and this includes only the governing and military classes,844 while all husbandmen are to be public or private slaves.845 Unlike Plato, however, Aristotle does not attempt to avoid undue inequalities in personal property.846 He sets no maximum above which limit goods must be confiscated, nor does he, as Plato, establish a rigorous system of laws to hamper trade and to make money-making operations practically impossible. He recognizes that such regulations are not feasible, and his legislation is therefore more considerate of human nature, despite the fact that his hostility to the ideal of commercialism is even more pronounced than is that of Plato.847
It is evident from the preceding outline of Aristotle’s negative and positive doctrine on the matter of private property that his system is in substantial agreement with that of Plato’s second state.848 Besides the points of similarity noted above, he agrees with his predecessor in emphasizing strongly the power of